French-door fridge freezers are typically solely for individuals with bigger kitchens. You want area to deal with one, and let’s be sincere, we don’t all have two sq. metres going free within the busiest room in our house.

For those who just like the double-door look and want substantial fridge and freezer storage however solely have a slim area accessible, the Hotpoint FFU3DW1 may very well be for you.

Design and look

The bods at Hotpoint have managed to condense what seems like an American-style fridge freezer, with its chunky handles, bevelled doorways, and monolithic presence, into a cupboard that’s solely 70cm huge and 78cm deep.

After all, this implies they’ve gone upwards to 195.5cm, which makes the highest shelf and the higher door racks considerably difficult to succeed in in case you are under common peak.

Not like an American-style equipment, the fridge and freezer are one above the opposite, as an alternative of side-by-side.

The equipment seems placing and is out there in glacial white or black. It has a pair of lengthy (83cm), silver fridge handles, so the grip isn’t awkward for both the tall or quick, and a nigh-on full width bar for the freezer door. It is an easy-to-access equipment. 

On high of that, the fridge has sturdy French doorways. We love French doorways on a fridge as a result of they only make viewing and retrieving your groceries a lot extra handy, and so they have an actual Parisian really feel.

However they do imply that the left door has an inbuilt click-in sealing mechanism, so you’ll be able to’t bump or nudge it closed. The suitable-hand door seals properly although, and the identical goes for the freezer door.

The ability wire can also be a good 140cm lengthy and sited on the backside of the again, so that you do have some plug attain leeway.

Working quantity

Hotpoint says that operational sound is 41dB, which is roughly the sound of a whisper, however we couldn’t actually discern any noise in any respect.

Apparently, the equipment’s door alarm, which sounds for those who go away the door open for greater than two minutes, is a non-intrusive continuous beep and the inner fridge lights flash too, which is an uncommon and intelligent characteristic.

Working price

This fridge freezer has an F ranking on the brand new 2021 power ranking scale, and Hotpoint states that the whole annual power consumption is 360 kWh/pa. This degree of consumption is according to different home equipment that supply this sort of chill and freezer storage capability, though these home equipment could also be typical side-by-side fridge freezers which might be far wider.

As a consequence of latest adjustments in energy pricing within the UK, it’s trickier to present an estimate at common working price per yr, however we might counsel, going by the Division for Enterprise, Vitality & Industrial Technique’s estimates for 2022 costs per kWh, that you can be about £100 a yr to run this equipment.

Management panel

You management the equipment by means of a black panel on the high of the fridge cupboard. After all, it’s fairly a attain at 192cm excessive and never really easy to see in case you are on the shorter aspect.

The capabilities are comparatively easy. You possibly can set the fridge temperature to 2°C, 4°C, 6°C or 8°C, and there’s a brilliant cool button for when you could quickly cool new grocery gadgets. Once more, the freezer has 4 temperature choices of -18°C, -20°C, -22°C and -26°C, and it has a brilliant freeze button which freezes new meals gadgets rapidly and shuts off after 24 hours.  

Settle down and heat up

We discovered that the fridge cooled from 15°C to 4°C throughout all zones in two hours. The freezer went from 8°C to -16°C in the identical timeframe, though it was set for -18°C.

We couldn’t find figures for chill retention, however our exams indicated that the fridge loses roughly one diploma each two hours and barely much less for the freezer. Nevertheless, we have been testing in an atmospheric temperature of about 15°C, so in case your fridge is in a really toasty kitchen, this course of might pace up just a little.      

Inside lighting

Two units of three spherical LED lights illuminate the within of the fridge cupboard. One set sits above the uppermost shelf on the appropriate, and the opposite above the recent drawer on the appropriate.

Visibility is sweet throughout the cabinets and the bins. There is no such thing as a gentle within the freezer cupboard, however it isn’t a major problem with a cupboard of this measurement: there are not any darkish, shadowy corners.

Fridge capability

There are 302 litres of storage within the fridge cupboard, which has Lively Recent Know-how to maintain the temperature fixed. For a one metre sq. footprint, together with a freezer cupboard that’s roughly 45% of the equipment, this degree of storage capability is great.

There are three glass cabinets, every with a white plastic edge. The 2 uppermost cabinets can modify 5.5cm upwards, whereas the underside shelf varieties the highest of the vegetable drawers. Once more, shorter individuals might wrestle to succeed in the highest shelf with no step. Nevertheless, the cabinets are spacious, and have a great peak clearance, so you may get lots of groceries on them.

There are additionally three three storage drawers: two half-width drawers for fruit and greens, every with a handbook humidity slider, and a full width drawer for meat and fish beneath, with a useful ribbed ground to stop roll.

The capability of those drawers is sweet, though they could be a bit rattly if you pull them out. The left vegetable drawer holds roughly 12 litres, and the appropriate holds 15 litres. Altogether, that is about 27 litres, or 1.25 luggage of purchasing.

The total-width meat and fish drawer, which Hotpoint refers to because the Meals Care Zone, holds roughly 28 litres, or 1.5 luggage of purchasing. We saved 1kg of rooster items, 300g of lamb, 400g of gammon, 600g of sausages and 210g of fish, and there was over half of the area nonetheless spare.

One factor to notice is that the French doorways of the fridge don’t swing very huge, so there isn’t a lot elbow room after you have got pulled out the fridge drawers, however it is a considerably choosy level.

Door storage

There are three door racks on the within of every fridge door. The left-hand racks are thinner than the appropriate because the left-hand door is slimmer. The 2 higher racks can modify upwards by 6cm, though the underside one is static, and every rack has a few vents within the backside to permit for drainage and simpler cleansing, which is a pleasant contact.

When it comes to real-world capability, the French door design does imply door storage is at a premium. You possibly can match a typical grocery store six-pinter of milk within the backside proper rack, and a four-pinter within the backside left, however this isn’t a set of doorways that permits for 4 six-pinters, or 24 pints of grocery store milk, throughout 4 door racks – the peak and width merely isn’t there.

The highest two set of racks maintain 4 to 5 400g jars, although remember that the highest racks will likely be difficult to succeed in in case you are shorter.

The fridge freezer doesn’t include an egg tray.

Freezer

Hotpoint states that there are 150 litres of No Frost freezer storage, which is great for this equipment’s footprint. There are three deep and spacious drawers: the highest one, by our tough reckoning, holding 38 litres; the center one 33 litres, because the ice dice trays truncate the area; and the underside drawer holds 26.5 litres.      

In actual world phrases, we took the center drawer, positioned 20 frozen parathas, 3kg of veg, and 1kg of fries inside, and the drawers weren’t even 50% full.  

The ice dice tray is deep and hooks over the deal with of a freezer drawer. It holds two lift-off-lid single row trays for 16 ice cubes, so a complete of 32 cubes in complete. It retains the ice in a handy place so it doesn’t get shuffled beneath an avalanche of frozen peas, the ice freezes properly and dice launch is straightforward.

Value and availability

Costs for this mannequin differ relying on the retailer, so it is a good suggestion to buy round before you purchase.

We examined the French door fridge-freezer mannequin in white, however Hotpoint additionally makes a mannequin in black and stainless-steel. It is at the moment accessible from AO.com for £629.

For those who choose separate pull-out freezer drawers, moderately than a door cupboard with freezer drawers inside, Hotpoint additionally makes a fridge freezer with the identical footprint and freezer drawers.

Verdict

This Hotpoint fridge freezer combines a contact of fashion with wonderful storage capability for a family that doesn’t have the area for a big side-by aspect, American-style fridge freezer.

Add to that the cheap worth level, and the inner storage organisation for fruit, greens, meat and fish, and altogether, we predict this equipment is value severe consideration.      

For extra fridge and fridge freezer choices, take a look at our round-up of one of the best we have reviewed. All the home equipment have gone by means of hands-on testing.               

Specs
Hotpoint fridge freezer FFU3DW1: Specs

60/40 fridge freezer
Capability: 436 litres
Dimensions: H195.5 x W70 x D78cm
Vitality ranking: F
Frost free